It
is rather pointless to watch something designed specifically for the
giant IMAX screen on your home entertainment theatre system. Face up to
it: theirs
is just plain bigger than yours!

This is also true for Imax Space Station, a rather superficial
documentary narrated by Tom Cruise about the International Space Station
(ISS) being constructed 250 miles above the Earth right now as you're
reading this. Since the IMAX experience is supposed to purely visceral,
anyone coming to Space Station looking for in-depth knowledge
about the ISS would walk away disappointed.

Several questions remain unanswered: when and why was the whole project
started? What will the thing look like when it's done? When will it be
done? What is the total cost? What about criticism that the whole
project is "make-work"
designed to keep Russian scientists off the
streets and out of trouble? How do astronauts pee and poop in zero
gravity?

(Okay, fess up to it: you're also interested in that last question of
mine. We didn't need a graphic illustration of how it is done, just a
peek at the onboard facilities, that's all.)

Don't get me wrong: I'm all for space exploration. Critics which say all
that money could have been spent on something better are missing the
point: all that money would probably have been spent on something worse,
specifically on defence budgets. Now instead spending a fortune on ways
to kill our fellow man, we're spending ways to . . . well, grow
peanuts
in space or whatever.

The point is that there is just something uplifting about the space
program, a sense of can-do, even though I personally believe that the
program is way behind where we could have been by now. Then again, I
belong to that idealistic generation that grew up in the
techno-fetishist 'Seventies when kids believed that one day we all can
go on holiday trips on the moon, instead of space trips being the
preserve of useless rich people like "astronaut"
billionaire Mark Shuttleworth as is the case today.

THE DISC: To make up for the shallow main feature, there is an
interesting ?making of? feature included. Don't miss it.

WORTH IT? Despite the topic's shallow treatment, the footage is
still gosh wow! Thanks to TV shows like
Star Trek - Enterprise we've
forgotten just what space travel exactly involves -
all that floating
about and all that. Space Station goes some way in correcting
those misperceptions.

RECOMMENDATION: If you're a space nut then you'll no doubt want
to check it out. However, the best place to see Space Station is
on the Imax screen and not at home.